Have any biographies or archival records published Donald Trump's SAT or college admission test results?
Executive summary
No published biographies or public archival records have disclosed Donald Trump’s SAT or college-admission test scores; reporting and commentary say those records remain private and protected by law, and allegations exist that Michael Cohen testified Trump directed threats to keep them sealed (see [1] and p1_s1). Multiple news and analysis pieces note that FERPA prevents schools from releasing scores without permission and that no verified SAT/ACT numbers for Trump have surfaced (see [3], [4], [2], p1_s5).
1. What reporting shows: no verified SAT or college-test results have been released
Journalists and education sites repeatedly state there are “no public details” of Trump’s grades or SAT scores and that no verified numeric test results have been made public, leaving his exact scores unknown [1] [2] [3]. Coverage following Michael Cohen’s 2019 testimony emphasized that, beyond degrees, granular academic data has not been disclosed [1].
2. Why records stay private: federal privacy law and institutional practice
Analysts point to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as the legal barrier: student academic records typically cannot be released without the student’s written permission, so schools and testing agencies generally will not disclose a former student’s test scores [3] [4]. Reporting underscores that these protections make independent publication of SAT numbers unlikely unless Trump or a legally authorized party releases them [3].
3. Allegations of efforts to keep them secret: Cohen’s testimony and documentary claims
Michael Cohen testified that letters alleged to be written at Trump’s direction threatened Trump’s former schools and the College Board not to release grades or SAT scores; news stories reproduced Cohen’s claim and attached documents he offered as evidence [3] [1] [5]. These accounts do not themselves reveal numeric scores; they report an attempt, according to Cohen, to forestall disclosure [1].
4. Contrasting narratives in biographies and retrospectives
Some biographical accounts and compilations repeat anecdotes — including long-circulating claims that Trump may have had others help with tests or that he boasted of high scores — but those items are presented as allegations, recollections, or secondhand claims rather than contemporaneously documented test results [6] [7]. Conservative and popular lists that assign celebrity SAT numbers either omit Trump or explicitly note no verified score exists [2] [8].
5. Why the question persists: politics, brand, and symbolism
Commentators argue the fixation on SATs is less about pedagogy than symbolism: Trump has cultivated a persona that ties intelligence to success, so opponents and journalists view standardized scores as a proxy test of his claims of brilliance. Coverage frames the secrecy as politically and culturally resonant rather than procedurally significant for his credentials [4] [9].
6. What sources do not report or confirm
Available sources do not publish any verified numeric SAT, ACT, or college-admissions test results for Donald Trump; they also do not provide school-released official transcripts containing scores [1] [3]. Sources do not confirm that any institution has legally waived FERPA for Trump or that the College Board has disclosed his scores [3] [1]. Allegations that someone else took Trump’s SAT are reported as claims in books and articles but are not validated by contemporaneous official records in the provided reporting [6] [7].
7. Caveats, competing viewpoints and hidden incentives
Reporting includes competing emphases: some writers treat the missing scores as trivial and protected by privacy law [4], while others see secrecy as politically meaningful and point to Cohen’s testimony as evidence of deliberate concealment [1] [5]. Sources that push the narrative of concealment rely on testimony and anecdote rather than public archival disclosure [1]. Biographers or commentators repeating unverified anecdotes may reflect an agenda to criticize or to sensationalize; the legal reality under FERPA offers an institutional reason records remain unavailable [3].
8. Bottom line for researchers and readers
If you seek a verified SAT or admissions-test score for Donald Trump, current public reporting and archival searches cited here indicate none has been published and institutional privacy rules preclude routine release without authorization; claims that scores exist in the public record are not supported by the sources reviewed [3] [1] [2].